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What is a moral panic'? What

            What is a moral panic'? What does this concept tell us about crime and criminality? Support your discussion with at least four identified examples of moral panics' experienced in the past.
             The term moral panic is a sociological phenomenon, which suggests a dramatic and rapid overreaction to forms of deviance or wrongdoing believed to be a direct threat to society. Moral panics have a tendency to occur at times of social upheaval when people are finding it difficult to adjust. There is a feeling of lack of control and a decline in standards. At these times people tend to group together into a social collective and identify a person or group of persons who can be blamed for all that is wrong with society. This scapegoat was described in Stanley Cohen's 1972 book as a folk devil'. Once the threat has been depicted in an easily recognisable form there is a response from the authorities and politicians. After this the panic either subsides or in many cases results in some kind of social change such as new legislation (Cohen, S.1972).
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             The phrase moral panic was first coined by Stanley Cohen in his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972). This book was an empirical study into the social reaction to the Mods and Rockers disturbances of 1964. The disturbances took place in Clacton on the Easter bank holiday weekend. Clacton was the traditional meeting place for working class youths from London's East End and 1964 was no exception. The problems that occurred where mainly due to the bad weather that weekend. It was cold and wet and as a result many of the resorts facilities where closed. The youths who had come for the weekend were bored and this was fuelled by rumours that café owners where refusing to serve young people. The result was scuffles between the groups, which resulted in damage to windows and beach huts, and those youths with motorbikes and scooters roared up and down the promenade.


Essays Related to What is a moral panic'? What

1. Moral Panic and Public Health

... of more uncompromising and disaffected youth population" by (Schissel 2000:102) will be analysed in this essay. As Cohen coined the term, moral panic is a condition, episode, where a person or a group of persons emerges to become a threat to societal value and interest. A moral panic as a social problem takes a form of urging the society to react to the myths that are passed around. For example, youth ... youth's life- it will result in the indictment of all adolescents. Tough sentencing for young offenders is only some of the ways to Approach moral panic. The society is at stage where ...

  • Word Count: 651
  • Approx Pages: 3

2. What do you see as the socio-political impact of the "Panic

Confronted with the nation's first great panic, Americans searched widely for the causes of and remedies for their plight. Their search led them to a wide variety of suggestions and controversies, many of which showed keen insight and economic sophistication. Discussion was carried on in the newspapers, in monographs, and in the halls of legislatures. Particularly striking is the high caliber economic thinking of the influential journalists of the day and of many leading political figures. The absence of specialized economists was in a way compensated by the economic knowledge and intelligence...

  • Word Count: 3048
  • Approx Pages: 12
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Moral Panic

... be responsible for monitoring what their children are viewing on their computers and that the children being exposed to inappropriate material on the Internet are likely the ones who are going out looking for it. She further argues that these children will simply find it elsewhere if they cannot find it on the net. In Wilkins" article moral panic is defined as "a wave of ... public concern, anxiety, and fervor about something, usually perceived as a threat to society". In recent years Internet pornography has come under public scrutiny and that as a result of this, very restrictive guid...

  • Word Count: 792
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Absinthe: Problem In Itself, Or Is It Alcohol In General That Is The Problem?

... comes to the debate over whether or not the item in question is "good" or "bad", moral, immoral etc? After consulting many different books, articles and government documents, as well as trying the drink myself, I must say that, personally, I don't think that Absinthe is "bad" and is in no way a cause for panic. In 1915, when France banned the drink, it was the last to ... absinthe by the French people amounts to a million gallons a year. Government and the more enlightened classes recognize the perils of this growing evil but are powerless to stop it." What this means is that the revenu...

  • Word Count: 3023
  • Approx Pages: 12
  • Has Bibliography

5. What Is The Extent Of Lady Macbeth's Involvement In The Murder Of Duncan?

... goal, his fantasy of becoming king. "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man, that function is smothered in surmise, and nothing is, but what is not." However, despite the idea of the murder being his originally, he is absolutely terrified at the prospect of actually carrying out the deed. "If ... to do it in the first place. He comes up against many practical reasons not to kill Duncan and also he has simple moral objections to carrying out this crime. Firstly, Duncan is in fact a member of Macbeth's own family, they get on well and are quite go...

  • Word Count: 2447
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Is Macbeth Guilty

... and that he can differentiate good from evil. In privacy, Macbeth re-thinks his plans to kill Duncan. Macbeth, reveals that he knows what he is about to do is immoral, and that justice will be repay him with evil. "We still have judgment here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which being ... centralisation of these themes, MACBETH would have been altered and the plot would be non-existent. Macbeth Ambition If is Macbeth's ambition that defeated his good nature, and that pushed him to break all moral boundaries. Before his encounter with the three witches (Act I, Scene III), Macbeth...

  • Word Count: 12917
  • Approx Pages: 52
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Media, Crime and Victimization

... situations and after a certain amount of time from the actual crime. Stanley Cohen described a moral panic as: "A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerged to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited ... , which showed the tragic and terrifying images of the what happened such as 'mugging' and breaking in to pharmacies . As a result of these dramatic images...

  • Word Count: 2855
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. The Era Of Good Feelings: An Era Of Idealism Or Realism?

... by achieving something they neither expected nor desired? Good motives give assurance against deliberately bad policies; they do not guarantee the moral goodness and political success of the policies they inspire. What is important to know, if one wants to understand foreign policy, is not primarily the motives of a statesman, but his intellectual ability to comprehend the essentials of foreign policy, as well ... municipal governments distributed soup. Baltimore set up 12 soup kitchens in 1820 to give food to the poor. This was the grim reality of the Era of Good Feelings. The panic ha...

  • Word Count: 4131
  • Approx Pages: 17
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Sex education

... order to generate a general outlook of the situation of sex education in the present New Zealand society. Furthermore, this essay will explain what the relationship between sexuality education and moral panic is; also does moral panic take place when sex education is taught or not in school? Significance of Teaching Sex Education In society there are many factors that contribute young people to be good ... sexual activity, ordinarily given to children and adolescents" (Microsoft Encarta 2002). The concept of sex education in the society is unheard of until, wherein unwanted pregnancies a...

  • Word Count: 2394
  • Approx Pages: 10

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